Tora! Tora! Tora!

A dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that allowed it to happen.

• Director:Richard Fleischer
• Genre:Action / Adventure / Drama / History / War
• Runtime:149 minutes

Cast

Martin Balsam : Admiral Husband E. Kimmel Sô Yamamura : Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (as Soh Yamamura) Joseph Cotten : Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson Tatsuya Mihashi : Commander Minoru GendaE.G. Marshall : Colonel Rufus S. Bratton

A change-of-command ceremony aboard the Japanese battleship Nagato, flagship for the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Soh Yamamura) takes place in 1940. He takes command from Zengo Yoshida (Junya Usami). The two discuss America’s embargo that starves Japan of raw materials. While both agree that a war with the United States would be a complete disaster, army hotheads and politicians push through the alliance with Germany and start war plans, believing the U.S. to be preoccupied with the war in Europe. Their fear of war increases when Japan signs the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in Berlin, making Japan the third member of the Axis Powers. With the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, regarded as a “knife to the throat of Japan,” Yamamoto orders the planning of a preemptive strike, believing Japan’s only hope is to annihilate the American Pacific fleet at the outset of hostilities.

The Japanese commanders planning the attack, debate Pearl Harbor’s exposure to a torpedo attack but realize that torpedoes dropped from an aircraft will fall and submerge at least 75 ft below the surface. Since Pearl Harbor is only 40 ft deep, the Americans feel they have a natural defense against torpedoes. But the Japanese have a plan to overcome this obstacle.

In a major intelligence victory, American intelligence in Washington manages to break the Japanese Purple Code allowing the United States to intercept radio transmissions the Japanese think are secret. American intelligence in Washington is seen collecting increasingly threatening radio intercepts and conveying their concern to a White House staff that seems strangely unresponsive. The American response to high quality intelligence in general appears lax although Pearl Harbor does increase air patrols and goes on full alert well before the raid. Read more